This one right here is one of my most recent favorites. A couple weeks ago on Memorial Day weekend it rained the entire few days. So what better way to make the most of the rain than taking photos! I went to a local college that has a few very old, historic buildings ( a favorite subject of mine) that I’d been considering photographing for quite a while. And it was finally the time.

I set out with my rain jacket on, boots laced tight, and a grocery bag wrapped around my camera and lens to hopefully protect everything. I used a 1/8 promist filter stacked on top of a 1/4PM because I’m on a budget and can’t afford a more dense mist filter just yet. These are also 72mm filters on a 48mm lens which just looked hilarious, but as you can see the results are pretty good!

Things I like: everything? but more seriously, my favorite part of the image has to be the red streak of brake lights directly over the bench on the right side of the frame. I wanted to show the bench in the photo but not bring too much attention to it and I think the red streak guides the eye over there and makes you wonder just a bit.

The glow and color of the lights inside the building are also just wonderful to me. I love some good lights! And the color of them was perfect for the atmosphere I was going after.

Things I don’t like: I think the area in the middle of the frame is kind of uninteresting and needs a subject like someone strolling through with an umbrella and maybe walking a dog…that sort of thing. In order to mitigate this I tried using a wide ratio for the crop and I really think it works. The crop kind of makes two photos that are tied together by an uninteresting middle part that your eyes walk back and forth between to get to the more interesting parts of the image.

Anyways give me some feedback! What do you like? What do you not like? Do you hate it? All thoughts are welcome! :)

    • LabototmizedOPM
      link
      21 year ago

      I’m so happy to hear that about the red streak!

      I thought it felt kind of eerie and liminal too - at the time of shooting- but in the moment just now I didn’t really like it as much. I’m glad you like it!

      And just like your lack of photography understanding, I know very little of painting techniques, but I know what looks good! I really believe you don’t need to be a photography expert in order to critique.

      Thank you so much for taking the time to post and welcome to this tiny new community!